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By the Grace of the Gods (LN) - Volume 11 - Chapter 2




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Chapter 7, Episode 22: First Snow

I was awoken by the brisk air and walked outside into a winter wonderland. The weather outside must have been frightful...

“What am I thinking? They don’t have those songs here,” I muttered to myself. My current location was my humble abode within the abandoned mines a few hours north of Gimul. Of course, I was the only human around, which meant there was no one to shovel the snow piled at my door this morning, which seemed to be two or three inches deep. I’d been to Hokkaido on business and it certainly wasn’t anything like the tundra I’d seen there, but this would still make walking a tad inconvenient.

“If I don’t get a move on, I’m gonna be late... Guess I’ll pull out the old ace.” I hadn’t had situations like this in mind when I came up with the aforementioned ace, but what the hey, it was worth a shot.

Half an hour later, I was lying on the ground in a patch of woods near the northern gate to Gimul.

“It worked... It actually worked! This definitely makes long-distance teleportation to places I’ve already visited a lot easier. Of course, it does require some caution when you’re getting out of it, but looks like the snow doesn’t affect how it works.”

I had done some experiments with another combination of slimes and magic, like those I’d already done with the stone, weed, and sand slimes. I had been trying to come up with more combos for a few days now. In reality, though, all I did was put a stone slime in the woods with enough rocks to keep it fed for a while. Examples of space magic included the basic Teleport, the intermediate Warp, and the advanced Gate; that last one was still beyond my purview.

Sebas, the master of space magic, once told me that these three spells were essentially the same, their only differences being the distance I could travel and the magic expenditure involved. Under his tutelage, I had learned to cast Warp, so of course, I tried to see if I could learn Gate while I was at it. Turns out that jumping to an area out of your sight is a lot more difficult than I expected it would be. It used to be that I could only use Teleport to end up a few feet away; with Warp, I could travel further, but only as far away as my eyes could see. Maybe because I was relying too heavily on my eyesight without realizing it, I could never jump to anywhere I couldn’t see. I felt like I could jump in the direction of my choice just by pouring more magic into a Teleport spell, but decided against this method. It would be a terrible hassle at the very least, and I could have wound up dead if I had proceeded with it and ended up getting stuck in a rock or something.

That’s why I came up with this method of jumping to a slime I had set up at a location before. Because of our contract, I could communicate with familiars even when they were far away. Even at a distance where we couldn’t communicate, I could feel their direction and distance from me, so I just had to jump towards it. The process felt like fast traveling in an RPG. This new magic application allowed me to practically jump into the city, drastically reducing my commute time. Quite a productive morning, considering the other potential applications of this spell. With my thoughts wandering, I walked through the northern gate.

■ ■ ■

Having gained some extra time from the jump, I decided to stop by the laundry shop, making my way past people on the streets starting to shovel the snow here and there. When I arrived, my employees were all lined up in front of the shop.

“Good morning!” I called as I came closer, and they responded in kind.

“What are you doing here so early, sir?” Carme asked in surprise.

“I wanted to come check on the shop since it snowed.” I wasn’t worried since we had discussed the protocol in case of snow, but I wanted to make a little tour since I had extra time.

“No, I meant... How early did you leave the northern mines to make it here this early through the snow?”

Right. Without explaining my new commute method, they would think that I was leaving my place at a ridiculously early hour. I explained how I got there early.

“Oh, good. I thought you were trying something crazy again,” Carme said.

“I think it’s pretty crazy that he’s casting advanced magic at his age...”

I felt nostalgic at Hudom’s surprise, now that the other employees had stopped being shocked at every little thing I did.

“Good morning!”

“Hey, Ryoma!”

The family next door called out to me.

“Good morning! Shoveling some snow?”

“Snow’s not good for safety or business unless you shovel it often.”

“The kids are ecstatic about it, but it’s tough work for us every winter...”

Sieg the butcher and Pauline the florist turned around to watch their children, Rick and Renny, play in the fresh snow.

“Brr! It’s cold...”


“Oh, Sieg. I have just the spell... Sunlight!”

With my incantation, a ball of light materialized ten feet or so above us, and I could immediately feel my body warm up at the touch of the light. It had been a while since I cast it, but the spell went off without a hitch.

“Ooh, that’s pretty warm.”

“It’s a spell meant to emulate daylight that I’ve made by combining light and fire magic.”

There was another spell that could have served as a light source (“Light”) cast by only using the light element, but Light didn’t carry heat. I had created this spell because I wanted to try and simulate the warmth of the sun. This spell alone could warm you as much as sitting under clear daylight, but combining it with barrier magic that shuts out the wind and the cold, it became a very useful heater substitute in the forest over winter.

“I’ll set up a few of them where you can take breaks. Make sure to stay warm. The cold isn’t good for you.” There was another spell called Space Heater, but that could have led to burns and fires so I decided against it. Even in the forest, Sunlight or a simple bonfire got me through most days, so I wasn’t worried about it.

For good measure, though, I decided to distribute hand warmers of my own concoction. “These are my prototypes, so please feel free to use them. It would be a great help if you could give me feedback on them later.”

“Thank you.”

“My hands and feet are starting to freeze up. This looks nice and easy.”

My first impression told me that the warmers were a hit with the ladies, as Fina, Jane, Maria, Sheruma the chef, and even Lilyn gathered around to discuss the best place to keep the warmer on them. On the other hand, the men didn’t seem to have much of a strong opinion on the matter, as they took them and shoved them into their pockets.

“I’ve been experimenting with other items, and I still have plenty of ideas to work on with my slime experiments. Please let me know if you ever need anything. I would love to have you test some of my other prototypes.”

Salt could prevent some snow from piling, but I was considering making a melting agent and antifreeze like calcium chloride with alchemy. My concern would be with the salinity of the earth, but that shouldn’t be a problem in the city... Unless the drainage causes some damage to the environment. Would alcohol be safer? It’s the main component in antifreeze used in cars, so it should be able to melt thin layers of frost or ice. I could use alcohol that drunk slimes produce along with any alcoholic drinks that didn’t turn out as well. If the temperature was high enough that it wouldn’t refreeze, a pour of water would do the trick. I could make boiling water by mixing fire and water magic, and combining wind magic with that would make hot steam. Well, if I was going to use magic, maybe it’d be more effective to lower the freezing point of the snow pile and clean that up? On the other hand, I could turn the snow into chunks of ice, peeling them off the ground and getting rid of them as is.

I remembered that some places in Hokkaido employ snow-melting equipment that utilizes well or stream water. While I couldn’t modify the drainage system of the city or anything, I could set up a temporary solution with the help of the slimes, especially that one that’d newly evolved. I was starting to get the hang of evolving slimes, lately. With more free time away from work and the team of goblins I was keeping, continuous experimentation had become a reality, allowing much more varied and expeditious results.

“Sir... I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself, but are you watching the time? I thought you said you had several stops to make.”

“Oh, cra—”

Dolce was right! I felt bad that I couldn’t stay and help, but I decided to take my leave. I was announcing my departure when Ox called to me, Fay by his side.

“All I can do is wield the sword. But you can always tell me if anything needs to be done. I am your slave, after all. Of course, you’ve never treated me as such. Still, I owe you a debt for allowing me to take up the sword again.”

“I’m sure everyone’s told you to take it easy...” Fay chimed in. “I’ll make the shop do just fine without you. Of course, we’d be in trouble if you never came back; the shop still needs you. So call us if you need anything. Got it?”

The other employees were nodding along behind them. It was reassuring to know that I was leaving the laundry shop in good hands, as expected.

“Thank you. I’ll ask for more training for testing my prototypes.”

With my trusty crew sending me off, I finally headed to my next destination.

■ ■ ■

After touring some spots around the city, when the sun was high in the sky, I made my way to the Adventurers’ Guild. I had gone to the security company, the garbage plant, construction sites... At each detour, I received words of encouragement from the people I’d met.

I came to realize that a business run by a child my age was a rare enough occurrence for people to talk about it. Apparently, I was pretty well known among the laundry shop patrons, notably among housewives. After my return from Fatoma, my actions had compounded my fame in Gimul. By now, complete strangers had begun to notice and greet me. Many of them told me that they saw me cleaning the drainage system, followed by comments of thanks or concern that the adventurers I was working with were giving me a hard time. Yet again, I felt gratitude for the people of Gimul. Their concerns about the delinquent adventurers, however, were entirely unfounded.

“Good morning.”

“L-Line it up!”

“G-Good morning, Boss!”

“Wh-When you say it like that...”

Somehow, they had started to treat me like their godfather... Where did I go wrong?



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